A Taste of Summer
by Liralen Li
Summary: Jyuushiro discovers a little plot by the Seireitei Women's Association, involving Captain Kyouraku and some summer peaches. He goes to see what's actually going on. Shonen-ai influences and implications.


_Author's Note: This was a confluence of a "What Flavor Are You" contest on Y!Gallery and a note by my good friend incandescens on the fact that I'd bought a 40 pound box of organic peaches and the Shunsui in my head had perked up at the thought. Her comment was the direct inspiration for Byakuya's observation. *laughs and laughs* I hope you enjoy..._

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_August's heat had slowed everything in the Gotei 13. The late summer laziness of the shinigami led to less than total control of the spirits and ghosts of the dead at this time, and the living world responded with the Obon Festival. The food and offerings, the lanterns and boats brought the dead back to the Spirit World, often happier and more mollified than before.

The whole of Soul Society benefitted from these days and it was nice to relax for a little while.

Jyuushiro was fanning himself quietly in the shade in front of his offices, when he saw Ise-kun, his own Kotetsu, and Soi Fong-taichou in a huddle. Respectful of the Second Division's Captain's skills with a kunai, Jyuushiro got up and carefully walked closer.

"Are you sure he has them?" Ise-kun asked.

"Of course I'm sure, when I say I'm going to get a task done I damned well do it," Soi Fong snapped.

Kotetsu squealed happily. "Let's go watch!"

"Watch what?" asked Jyuushiro blandly.

Ise-kun and Kotetsu both jumped. Soi Fong just gave him a look that he couldn't read.

"N... nothing..." Kotetsu stammered and then she blushed so brightly that Soi Fong rolled her eyes. Ise-kun tsked and Kotetsu only blushed more brightly.

"Where is... it?' Jyuushiro asked, mystified.

Ise-kun sighed. "The roof of the Eighth Division."

"Oh?" Jyuushiro asked, one eyebrow raising. "Is there much cover up there?"

This time Soi Fong snickered. "There's even a blind built on the south end of the roof."

"Oh, _why_ did you tell him about that?!" Ise-kun snapped, even as Jyuushiro wrapped his reiatsu about himself, and took a shunpo step to the south end of the roof of the Ninth Division.

Up there, he found the blind, well-covered in branches of the maple tree that shaded that end of the roof. It was a large frame that could easily hide several people. He surprised Matsumoto and Rukia as he popped into existence behind them.

"Shhhhh..." hissed Rukia before she turned and saw hm. "Oh! Taichou! I'm... oh..." There was another puff of reiatsu as cold as early spring. Jyuushiro turned to see Byakuya standing next to him. "Ni-sama! Please furl yourself!" said Rukia and she turned alarmingly pale, even as Matsumoto started giggling so hard she nearly fell off the roof.

"There seemed to be a disturbance among all the female personnel," Byakuya intoned even as he tucked his reiatsu in about himself.

Matsumoto hissed, "Shhh.... keep it down... or he'll hear you."

"He?" Jyuushiro peered. "Ahhh... Shunsui... I should have known..."

Golden spheres blushing bright red all piled in a haphazard pyramid near the long-fingered hand of the brown-haired Captain, whose face was still covered with his hat.

"Oh no," Jyuushiro groaned.

"What is the matter?" Byakuya asked, one eyebrow rising.

"Peaches..." Jyuushiro sat seiza next to Rukia and whispered. "Soi Fong gave him ripe peaches, didn't she? Is this for your dratted Seireitei Women's Association Calendar?"

Rukia nodded in silence, holding a slender digital camera.

"Come on, taichou, live a little. It's not like pinning him to a tree and he'll enjoy it as much as we will," Matsumoto said firmly and flopped onto the ground next to Jyuushiro.

Jyuushiro took in a breath and then had to huff a laugh. "There is that."

"Enjoy what?" asked Byakuya in a cool voice.

"Just watch," Jyuushiro said.

For a while nothing happened, as the four of them waited behind the thin blind. Then a mockingbird perched on a branch near by and started singing a nightingale's song through. It sang it three time and then began a liquid trilling that Jyuushiro couldn't recognize. The hat moved at the sound, and Shunsui blearily peered from around his hat.

The mockingbird jumped closer.

For a moment, man and bird simply looked at each other, dark eyes unreadable in either instance, and then the bird took off in a flap of wings.

Shunsui sighed, rubbed his errant hair with one hand and then caught sight of the peaches.

He stilled, then reached out and gently picked up one of the velvet-covered fruit. Jyuushiro felt his breath catch as Shunsui's long fingers gently caressed the blushing skin, turning the peach over in his hands, checking it for god knows what, but the intensity of the inspection itself made everyone behind the blind silent and dead still.

Shunsui brought the fruit his face, breathed deep, and sighed, "Mmmm... honeyed perfume could not match thee for the heart of summer."

He pushed back the sleeve on the arm holding the peach, and then gently, reverently, he opened his mobile mouth, and sank his white teeth into the velvet skin, the firm flesh, and juice spilled forth. Shunsui laughed that low laugh that had always made Jyuushiro's bones feel weak, and his lips closed about that that bite, and then he kissed away the juices with a sound that made Matsumoto whimper.

The spill was extensive, and Shunsui went after the drips with his tongue. Up his forearm along dark veins, then he moved the peach to his other hand, as he thoroughly licked his palm. Then he started on his fingers. Laving the pinky and ring finger, and then sucking off the center and index, when it came to his thumb, the combination of tongue and mouth made Jyuushiro's jaw drop.

Shunsui then went for another bite.

Jyuushiro looked around the roof, and saw Matsumoto in a puddle. Rukia blushed a bright, deep red even as she snapped photos with that remarkably silent camera. Then Jyuushiro felt a warm pressure against the back of his shoulder.

"Ukitake-senpai," breathed Byakuya's low voice into his ear. "_That _should be considered sexual harrassement."

Jyuushiro swallowed and then grinned. "Well, he's not in his offices, now, is he?'

"Mmm... true." Byakuya considered. "But he rarely is in any case."

Jyuushiro chuckled. "And you can't be implying that he's playing to us as an audience, trying to seduce what he cannot see?"

Byakuya gave an elegant shrug. "My problem is when he interferes with others duties." His nod took in the mostly incapacitated Matsumoto and Rukia gave Jyuushiro a weak smile.

"Do you wish to stop him?" Jyuushiro asked.

There was pause and Byakuya shook his head. "No, senpai. I suspect you have more expertise in this area than I."

Jyuushiro chuckled, picking up the thread of humor that ran through his former pupil. "Mmm... I suppose I do."

He got up, and ignoring protests by both women, swept about the blind.

Shunsui startled when he saw him, and fell over in a flurry of surprise, but Jyuushiro noticed just how careful his old friend was to avoid the pile of peaches in his antics.

"Been playing for the children, hm?" Jyuushiro asked sternly.

Shunsui hid under his hat, and then peeked out, all doe-eyed and innocent looking. "What? I'm just eating these gorgeous peaches that just appeared while I was napping. Woah, were there actually people back there?"

This close, neither of them could really hide their feelings, and Jyuushiro gave up trying to be or look stern at all. "Yes," he said simply. "Quite a few of them and more were trying to get up here to get a look. Do you want to really give them one?"

Shunsui's eyes lit with amusement and something more. "Will you join me then, Captain, in enjoying this unexpected gift?"

Jyuushiro chuckled. "Certainly."

When he sank to his knees, they both glanced at each other as the number of reiatsu signatures behind the blind doubled and then tripled. Jyuushiro concentrated on the texture of the velvet skin of the peach held in his lover's hand as he bent down to bite, and as the honeyed juice rushed forth and he sucked to keep every drop of it. The flesh yielded softly to the bite, tearing away from the ragged red pit, and slid into his mouth. He chewed, swallowed, and chuckled to find Shunsui's eyes wide and watching.

"Hm.... I wonder if you taste as good as this did?" Jyuushiro mused.

Shunsui's laughed. "I thought Byakuya asked you to _stop _me, but I like where you're going with this..."

Long-fingered hands touched Jyuushiro's cheek as gently as they had stroked the velvet skin of the peach. Jyuushiro leaned into the touch, and opened his mouth to taste Shunsui's, and as they came together they both heard the thump of someone falling off the roof; but, for once, Jyuushiro didn't care. He wanted his taste of summer...


End file.
